1. The Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a glass-metal bond made with glass having a composition that meets the requirements of glass-metal bonds, and particularly of tube collectors used in a solar energy collection apparatus. The invention also relates to the glass that is formulated with a composition that meets the requirements of the glass-metal bonds.
2. Description of the Related Art
Glass-metal bonds are used, for example, in vacuum tube collectors. In vacuum tube collectors, a vacuum-tight glass-metal bond between the absorber tube consisting of a metal and the envelope tube consisting of glass is required for thermal insulation.
Such tube collectors are used, for example, in parabolic trough solar power plants.
In parabolic trough solar power plants, operating temperatures of up to 400° C. are generated in the collectors with strong local temperature differences. In addition, temperature changes caused by the diurnal cycle and intermittent cloudy periods produce continual stresses.
In high-temperature solar collectors, on the one hand, so-called unmatched glass-metal bonds have been used to date. They are called unmatched glass-metal bonds because the glass and metal have different coefficients of thermal expansion. On the other hand, so-called matched glass-metal bonds are used, in which case one possible way of achieving the match is to use a plurality of intermediate glasses. This approach, however, has various disadvantages.
DE 10 2004 008 559 A1 discloses a glass-metal bond of a tube collector, which uses an aluminum borosilicate glass that is also employed as a material for primary pharmaceutical packaging. It is not specially adapted to the requirements of a glass for tube collectors and to the requirements of producing such a glass. A similar glass composition range of a glass, in particular for solar thermal applications, is described in DE 10 2006 041 469 B3. DE 44 30 710 C1 discloses low-boron borosilicate glasses which have a coefficient of thermal expansion α20/300≦5.3×10−6/K.
The receiver, as the key part of a tube collector for a parabolic trough solar power plant, consists of an inner tube made of steel and an outer envelope tube made of glass. The two components must be connected vacuum-tightly by means of glass-metal bonds.
The steel tube (absorber tube) is coated with a radiation-selective material, in order to ensure a high absorption ratio.
The envelope tube requires a coefficient of thermal expansion matched to the metal.
The vacuum between the envelope tube and the absorber tube reduces the heat loss and makes a contribution to optimal heating efficiency.
The envelope tube is provided with an antireflection layer which, together with the requisite high transmission of the glass, is intended to give a high transmissivity of at least 96%.
The envelope tube requires high thermal and temperature change stability, high weather resistance, i.e. a high hydrolytic stability, and high mechanical stability, i.e. high strength.
Despite its high load-bearing capacity, in particular thermal load-bearing capacity, it should be readily meltable in the least energy-intensive way possible. All these glass and production properties should furthermore be achievable with the least possible production and raw material costs.